Wii Outselling Wii U, Only 160,000 Units Shipped Last Quarter

rescendent writes with news that the Wii U still isn't selling very well. From the article: "Nintendo's Wii U console sold only 160,000 units worldwide during the past three months, with the company blaming a lack of first-party releases for the poor performance. Software sales for the system were just 1.3 million units. During the period Nintendo sold 90,000 Wii U consoles in Japan, 60,000 in the US and only 10,000 in Europe and Australia." El Reg reports that the Wii sold 210,000 units in the same quarter. On the bright side, Nintendo is once again profitable.

Comments

The move to HD hurt them

[bonch]

Nintendo dragged its feet in the move to HD and is paying the price. They underestimated the time and money expense, and now their first-party releases are behind. On top of that, there's barely been any marketing for the Wii U, which has a name that implies it's an accessory for the Wii rather than a new console. The console's tablet controller doesn't offer anything that people's existing smartphones and iPads can't do better. It was likely released in reaction to the iPad (Nintendo stated in 2010 that Apple is their biggest threat). With the lack of hardware power and user base, there's nothing with which to court third-party developers, who are focused instead on the more powerful consoles coming out later this year.

Nintendo's stronghold remains handheld gaming. However, even that is under threat from smartphones. On top of what Android already supports, iOS 7 will ship with native physical controller APIs, and Apple is working with hardware manufacturers to release official attachments and wireless controllers. While the 3DS certainly won't disappear, it will be interesting to watch how well it fares among adult gamers when physical controllers become commonplace in the iPhone accessory aisle.

Re:The move to HD hurt them

[squiggleslash]

I think, if anything, the fact their HD Wii isn't selling as well as their regular Wii shows that Nintendo's original disinterest in HD never hurt them.

Re:The move to HD hurt them

[jxander]

You are correct about most things, but will disagree on your assessment of the Wii U tablet. If used properly, it could offer some very unique game play.

They've started to scratch the surface of that potential in a few "Nintendoland" minigames; the Luigi Ghost game and Metroid most notably. Being able to host competitive multiplayer on actual separate screens is a new development in console gaming.

Of course, these two little games aren't nearly enough to sell a system, or completely validate the concept... but it's a start. We need developers to actually utilize this technology to make new, interesting games. Imagine a dungeon crawler game, one person with the Tablet is the Dungeon Master, controlling hordes of orcs/zombies/etc like an RTS while up to 4 players on normal controllers try and make it through the dungeon, or save the princess, or whatever. The concept works for any cooperative multiplayer game... just let one person act as the opponent in place of the computer. Left 4 Dead does a similar thing, but it requires every player to have their own copy of the game, and be sitting on their own TV, with their own console/computer, etc. Wii U could bring that concept to a single living room couch.

Another big step will be the possibility of hosting multiple tablets on a single system. Especially for sports games, where your tablet can serve as your playbook. No more picking plays onscreen where the other player can clearly see what you're running. The TV can be dedicated to the actual on-field situation, with substitutions, sneak plays, formations, etc handled on the tablet. Hell, this could make for actual compelling "Video Games as a spectator sport." Two players have their tablets, control the plays, etc while a crowd watches a TV. To them, it looks like a regular game, with slightly awkward running motions at times.

Just like the PS3

[HappyHead]

For the first few years, Sony's PS2 also out-sold the PS3, didn't it?

Re: Ironic

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's honest, which is more than you'd get elsewhere.

Re:Mario Kart Wii 2

[greghodg]

Agreed. And they should have made the Wii U capable of rendering existing games in HD resolutions, then the lack of new HD content wouldn't matter as much. The dolphin emulator can do it, Nintendo could have done it too.

Re:As compared to the XKeystroke article, below

[Millennium]

If Slashdot only updated when there was a story more important than the previous one, it wouldn't update very often.

Re:Ironic

[JWW]

It is ironic, but its also a correct analysis.

As a Wii U owner games I would like to see on the Wii U are:

New Mario Kart
New Mario Galaxy
New/Relaunched Metroid
New Paper Mario game
New Mario Party game
New Zelda FPS style game

But NONE of these titles exist!! As a long time Nintendo fan, I'd buy all of these, but they didn't even bother to make and have them ready by the Wii U launch!!

Also, the migration from the Wii to the Wii U was so customer hostile that we don't play Wii games on the Wii U, we fire up the Wii and use that. One time, one direction game data transfer!! Fuck that shit!! One of the worst customer decisions ever by Nintendo. On the Wii you could plug in the cartridge from your gamecube to access the saved game data, why the hell won't the Wii U and Wii allow you to move Wii save game data back and forth on a SIM card. Oh, what's that Nintendo? Piracy, you say? Well Fuck you there too! I'm a customer who's fairly committed to your stuff who is getting rapidly disillusioned.

Re:Ironic

[wed128]

New Zelda FPS style game

Worst....Idea....Ever. Zelda is perfect.